Grace Competes in Semifinals at NCAA Championships

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - On the second day of the
NCAA Track and Field Championships, Yale sophomore Kate
Grace competed against the best collegiate athletes in the
country in the semifinals of the 800-meter run. Grace qualified for
the semifinals by placing 16th out of the field of 27 in the
preliminary round on Wednesday with an outdoor personal record of
2:05.82. Grace finished eighth in the semifinal heat, earning her
17th place overall.

Grace ran her first 400 meters in 59.9 seconds, and her second
in 1:08.61. She did not match her record of the preliminary round
(when her splits were 1:01.77 and 1:04.05), but she ran a strong
race for the second day in a row - a tough feat.

The rest of the field was much faster in the semifinals than it
was in the preliminary heats, with most of the women running under
2:04. The fastest athletes (still Tennessee junior Phoebe Wright
and last year's champion Michigan senior Geena Gall) ran under
2:03.

While Grace did not qualify for the finals this year, she'll
have good opportunities in the next two years to return to the
NCAAs. The 2009 season is finally over for this talented sophomore,
and she will have the summer to train before returning in the fall
to prepare for the 2010 track season.